


Learning to Move Forward

by PluralForce



Category: Kamen Rider Drive, Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Ending spoilers for both shows, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 02:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6638380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PluralForce/pseuds/PluralForce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance encounter while traveling through Arizona leads Gou to meet someone who's a kindred spirit in more ways than he realizes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning to Move Forward

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about how much I wanted these two to meet, and then I realized that with Gou likely having been in AZ I have a legit excuse to write a fic set in my own home, and then before I knew it I accidentally an entire fic. I haven't written for KR in forever, so please be kind /)_(\

When Gou returns to America, he realizes soon enough that he needs to do some traveling on his own, to get back into the groove of photography and maybe get his head on straight after everything that’s happened over the past year. (And maybe hope—fruitlessly—that he’ll stumble across some leads along the way.) As such, when he finally rolls into Arizona again, the rest of the world is starting to break into spring, which here means it’s just verging on the beginning of summer.

Part of him has missed it, the mountain ranges and the red rocks and the million different types of desert plants, but now that he’s actually here, the other part of him is remembering why he was happy to leave. He doesn’t miss the humidity of Japanese summers, not one bit, but he’d forgotten how the weather here can get to what the rest of the sane world would call “too damn hot” and what the locals refer to as “just starting to get warm.” Poor timing on his part, sure, but it could be worse, and he’s not waiting another six months for the temperature to get down to something reasonable. So he’s here now for a little while, he guesses.

Professor Harley is out, he’s informed when he stops by the lab, and will be for the rest of the week. More bad timing, and now he’s got a bunch of time to kill before he can talk to the man. So he wanders around the university campus somewhat aimlessly, eventually sitting down on a bench in the shade to take in the nostalgia of the place. It hasn’t actually been that long since he’s been here, but it feels like it’s been a lifetime.

Back then, all he’d had on his mind was defeating the Roidmudes, every last one of them, and he’d been so single-mindedly determined in his cause. Now? Now they’re all gone, even the one that doesn’t really deserve to be. Automatically, his hand goes to his pocket, fingers tracing the familiar lines of the Signal Bike he’s been carrying ever since that day. Somehow his thoughts always come back to this.

A sharp cry from nearby snaps Gou back into the present. The source of the commotion is immediately apparent: someone had bumped into a student walking by, knocking her over, and then had walked off without even bothering to look back as the girl’s massive armful of library books had tumbled out onto the ground. The girl sits up, then looks at the pile of books scattered around her with a sigh of frustration.

Internally, Gou rolls his eyes at the idiot who’d just left her there, and he jogs over to help. As he picks up books, dusting off and making sure they’re not damaged, he hears another voice ask, “Are you okay?” as someone else helps the girl to her feet.

Gou looks up at the newcomer, then blinks and does a double-take. It’s a young man, older than him but not by much—but what the heck is he wearing? His clothes are loose and baggy and covered in crazy bright tie-dye colors. The fashion sense makes him look something like a hobo, or a hippie, or somewhere in between. Still, his appearance is tidy and he’s got what has to be the friendliest smile Gou’s ever seen.

When Gou hands the girl her books back, she thanks both of them profusely and goes on her way. Gou watches her go and mutters under his breath in Japanese, “Really, what kind of jerk just bumps into her like that and then leaves?”

A light chuckling comes from next to him. “Well, some people are just like that,” the other man says in the same language.

“Yeah, but still…” Gou trails off as he realizes something. “Wait, you’re Japanese?” He maybe should've realized, but he's learned not to make assumptions here.

The man smiles and holds out a hand to shake. “Hino Eiji. Nice to meet you.”

——

They go get drinks from the coffee shop on a busy corner in the center of campus, one that Gou swears wasn’t there when he left. It’s rare to meet another native Japanese person around here, and Eiji has this friendly aura that makes it difficult to dislike him. They’re both surprised when they find out that they’re both travelers, or perhaps the word is wanderers. Gou wonders what the odds are, to have found what is apparently a kindred spirit all the way out here, and they swap travel stories eagerly.

“Is there any particular reason why you started traveling?” Eiji asks curiously.

Gou’s mood, having been lifted with the conversation, falls again. He tries not to think about it, pushes the memories out of his mind before they rise and take over, wills them back with a rough shake of his head.

“I’d rather not talk about it, if it’s all the same.”

Eiji’s smile is sympathetic. “I understand.” His gaze looks past Gou, as if seeing something—or someone—not there. “For me, I started because I was… looking for something, I guess. I’m not sure if I’ll ever find it, but I need to try.”

The tone of Eiji’s voice surprises Gou, mostly for how well he recognizes the wistful sadness laced into Eiji’s usual lighthearted tone. There’s something lurking behind Eiji’s smile, something that strikes Gou as intimately familiar but that he can’t yet identify.

But then Eiji blinks and looks back at Gou, and says, politely but firmly, that that’s enough about him. Soon enough they’re back to lighthearted travel talk, trying to figure out places they’ve both been, and Gou eagerly shows off his photography, which Eiji praises with genuine enthusiasm. Eventually they realize how late it’s gotten, and they exchange phone numbers and part ways.

But the whole time, even after he leaves, the thought stays with Gou, that glimpse of the depth he’d seen behind Eiji’s smile. It burrows into the back of his mind and stays there, a question that he’s not sure he’ll get the answer to.

——

The next day, Gou goes exploring the paths on some of the nearby hills, the ones untouched by human development, camera in hand. It feels good to lose himself in his photos, if only just for a few hours.

As he walks back down, he looks back over the pictures he’s just taken—he thinks he’s gotten at least a few good shots out of the deal—instead of looking where he’s going, which is probably why he stumbles over a rock in the path. He doesn’t manage to right himself in time, and puts one hand out to catch his fall while the other keeps his camera out of the way of damage as he goes sprawling in the dirt.

“Aw, man…” he groans.

“Are you okay?” he hears for the second time in as many days, and looks up—sure enough, it’s Eiji there helping him to his feet.

“You again?” he wonders idly as he brushes himself off. No actual damage done, at least.

Eiji laughs. “This is an interesting coincidence, isn’t it?” His gaze falls, and he leans down to pick something up off the ground. “Is this yours?”

Gou starts as Eiji holds the object out to him—it’s Chase’s Signal Bike. Gou snatches it up and shoves it into his pocket; he doesn’t want to risk losing it, and inwardly curses himself for having almost lost it in the first place. Would he have just left it—left his friend—behind like that, not even realizing anything was off, if Eiji hadn’t been there to notice? When would he have noticed it was gone?

Eiji is looking at him with a bit of surprise, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he just smiles that same sad smile that’s been on Gou’s mind since yesterday.

——

Somehow lunch happens, because Eiji insists, and Gou’s starting to wonder if there’s a reason they keep meeting like this, so he can’t very well turn it down.

They walk to a nearby restaurant in companionable silence, neither saying a word, though Gou suspects it’s in part because neither one of them is quite all there. He’s certainly not, not after the Signal Bike brought back a fresh wave of guilt along with the memories. Eiji seems to be off somewhere else, too—Gou sees it in the way he stares after a pair of college students walking along with ice pops in their hands. It’s something completely innocuous, completely ordinary, but Eiji has that look again like he’s looking at someone else entirely, and Gou inwardly wonders what the story is there.

Lunch itself is a subdued affair; they make light conversation, and Gou shows off his new photos, but neither one can fully shake the weight of the past today, it seems, and it’s a far cry from the unrestrained friendliness of the day before.

They fall into silence for a long while, again, until finally, Eiji breaks it. “By the way, that trinket earlier…”

“Ah, that?” Gou says, as though the weight of it in his pocket hasn’t been dwelling on his mind. “It’s… something that my friend left for me.” Friend. It still feels strange to say the word aloud. Chase’s last words echo in his mind, a a memory he can’t shove back into the confines of his heart even if he wants to.

“I see…” Eiji looks somber.

Gou’s not sure what it is in him that makes him keep talking, but before he realizes it, the words are pouring out of him. “Do you ever… regret not realizing something until it’s too late to fix it?”

Eiji stares down at the table with that look again. “Yes,” he says simply.

Perhaps unconsciously, he’s drawn some small trinket of his own out of his pocket. Gou takes a closer look as Eiji rolls it around in his hands; it’s a coin, red, with some sort of fancy engraving on it, split into two pieces.

Suddenly, with a flash of realization, Gou understands why that face Eiji’s been making has been weighing on his mind, why the look that’s somehow sad, wistful, happy, and determined all at once seems so familiar. It’s like looking in a goddamn mirror.

“How long?” Gou demands suddenly.

Eiji glances up at him, a similar recognition in his eyes, and Gou knows he understands.

“…Four and a half years,” Eiji admits after some time.

Gou whistles and curses softly.

He can’t believe there’s another person out there with a friend who’s enough of an asshole to go and do the exact same damn thing.

“How do you… how do you deal with it?” he asks quietly, because while most days he thinks he can handle it, sometimes the guilt and regret threaten to wash over him and he’s no longer so sure.

Eiji pauses, then smiles at him, the sadness gone—nothing but quiet determination. “By remembering what he would’ve wanted for me. And by remembering what the people who are still alive would want for me.”

Gou thinks this over, turns the words over in his mind, then nods. There’s nothing else he can do but try, after all.

——

As they’re exiting the restaurant, Eiji mentions that he’ll probably be leaving town sometime tonight or tomorrow, and so they say their goodbyes.

“By the way, I was wondering…” Eiji says a bit hesitantly, just before they part. “Do the words ‘Kamen Rider’ mean anything to you?”

Gou stares at him, then laughs. “You could say that.”

There’s a lightness that’s returned to the smile on Eiji’s face, and Gou is sure that’s reflected in his own.

“Small world, isn’t it?” Eiji says. Gou nods. It really, really is.

As they part ways, Gou stops walking suddenly, then turns back around.

“Hey!” he shouts, and Eiji stops. “I’ll contact you if I ever… you know, find anything.”

Eiji looks over his shoulder. “Same here,” he calls back.

Gou grins and walks off. Perhaps he’ll set out on his own journey again after all.


End file.
